Redemption for Unknown Sins (ON HOLD FOR NOW)
by Ruby Sapphire Rose
Summary: Her first memories are of being alone, hungry, and sick in an alley. Now after three years of unimaginable torture at the hands of a mad man, she discovers who she truly is and the evil that she and her family have inflicted on the world. She vows to do whatever it takes to redeem herself, but how can you when you can't even remember the sins you have committed? PLEASE R&R!
1. Somewhere You'll Never Find Them

**A/N: The only characters that are mine are Oksana, Suli (pronounced 'sue-lee'), all the other girls except Nakiya (pronounced 'Na-kya' and you'll find out**

**why soon) and Kesuk, Oksana's father. Everyone else belongs to Bryke.**

**This is the first part of my two-part ATLA story and takes place three years after the end of the series (two years after "The Promise"). I actually got the idea**

**for this story after I finished watching the entire first series the first time and I finished writing both parts just after part 3 of "The Promise" came out, so**

**while there will be references to that series, there will be no references to "The Search".**

**Also, for the sake of this story, the last scene in "The Promise-Part 3" between Zuko and Azula never happened.**

**One more thing, the image I used as this story's avatar isn't mine. I found it on Google and when I tried to go to the website it was posted on and contact the**

**artist; I found that there was no way I could contact him or her. So if this is your artwork and you want me to take it down, message me or send me a review**

**and I will find another avatar for this story.**

**With all that said, here is the first chapter...**

As Iroh locked the doors to the Jasmine Dragon, he knew that this was the night. He had been planning this for weeks and when it came time to act, he had to do it fast and he

couldn't afford to fail. Too many lives were at risk.

"What could be taking Hawky so long?" Sokka cried. "Maybe he got caught by some predator as he was leaving!"

"Quit your winning, Snoozles! The hawk will get here when he gets here." Toph said.

Iroh had asked them, Aang, and Katara to come to Ba Sing Se to help him. He had also asked Suki and Ty Lee to come from the Fire Nation.

"I just can't believe a waterbending healer is capable of doing something so evil." Katara said. "From what Iroh has been telling us, this guy sounds like the waterbender version of Ozai."

Iroh let out a sigh.

"Yes, he is." He said. "But if everything goes as I planned tonight, he'll be stopped before he can become as powerful."

Three years before, just after Iroh reopened the teashop after the end of the Hundred Year War, a traveling healer bought the building next to the shop and set up his permanent

practice there. Iroh came over to introduce himself and found out that his name was Kesuk, and he was a widow with an eleven-year-old daughter named Oksana, who was also

a waterbender. Soon the two men formed a friendship and Iroh also grew close with Oksana, who he would watch when Kesuk had to travel to help healers around the Earth

Kingdom and Fire Nation.

Then one day, Oksana just disappeared.

Kesuk said that, since Oksana wanted to follow in his footsteps, he had talked to Katara herself and got her to agree to take Oksana on as an apprentice and she was now

traveling with the waterbending master, her brother, and the Avatar. Iroh had a hard time believing this because Kesuk was one of the best healers in the world and it didn't

make any sense to him why Oksana would have to travel around the world to learn things that she could learn just by working with her father. Another reason was that he kept

in touch with the Avatar and his friends. He wrote to Katara and told her what Kesuk had told him and when Katara wrote back saying that she never had a conversation with

anybody named Kesuk and she was too busy these days to take on an apprentice, Iroh knew that Kesuk was lying. Over the next two years, Kesuk told and showed all the

letters that he claimed Oskana was writing to him telling about her adventures around the world. He had no idea that, when he wasn't running the teashop, Iroh was secretly

looking for Oksana himself, even asking the White Lotus to help him in his search. But every promising sighting turned into a dead end and Iroh was soon wondering if he would

ever see the young girl again. Then one night a few weeks before, he made a horrifying discovery.

The streets were packed with people because of a citywide festival being held to celebrate the three-year anniversary of the end of the Hundred Year War. Because of this, Iroh

had decided to take a shortcut home through the alleys. As he was walking passed the back of Kesuk's building, he heard the faint sounds of someone crying. He looked around

and saw that he was the only one in the alley, then he looked down and saw a small alcove with vertical metal bars covering it. He got down on his knees, leaned in closer, and

heard the crying more clearly.

"Hello?" He said. "Is someone down there?"

The crying stopped and it was silent for a few moments, then a small voice said,

"Uncle?"

Iroh couldn't believe it. It had been two years since he heard it, but he would have recognized that voice anywhere.

"Yes Oksana, it's me!" He said. "What are you doing down there? Where have you been?"

"Papa locked me down here along with the rest of the girls."

"What?! Why?!" Iroh asked. "And what other girls?"

"The other girls that he kidnapped from here in the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation." She said.

Iroh was in shock.

"But what does he want with all of you?" He said.

"He wants us repopulate the world so that the people of the Water Tribes will be the only people on Earth." She said. "He's mad about the Hundred Year War and thinks that the world would be a better place if everyone were of Water Tribe decent. He also wants to wipe out all other kinds of bending so that water bending is the only kind of bending on Earth."

Iroh was afraid to ask, but he did anyway.

"Oksana, how old are all of you?" He asked.

It was quiet for a moment, then Oksana said,

"The youngest girl is thirteen and the oldest is eighteen." She said.

Iroh felt sick.

"Please Uncle, you have to help us!" She cried. "We don't want to do this, we all want to go home!"

"Don't worry Oksana, I'm promise I'm going to get you all out of there." He said.

He heard what sounded like locks being undone.

"It's Papa, he heard us!" She said. "Get out of here before he sees you!"

Iroh didn't want to leave, but he knew if he had to if he wanted to save the girls. He quickly got up and ran until he reached his house. The next day, he sent a letter to the

Gaang and began forming a plan.

The screech of a hawk brought Iroh out of his thoughts. It flew inside and landed on the backs of one chairs. Sokka ran over to the bird.

"Hawky!" He said as he opened the tube-shaped container it's back.

He pulled out a scroll, unrolled it, and quickly read it before turning to the group, his face turning serious.

"Kesuk's at the palace." He said.

Iroh nodded and used his firebending to put out all the lamps in the front of the shop.

"Okay Katara, stay here and wait for us. Be prepared for anything, I don't know the condition of any of the girls." He said. "The rest of you come with me."

Katara gave him a nod and the rest of the group followed Iroh out the back of the shop and over to the back of Kesuk's building.

Meanwhile, Oksana was kneeling next to the pallet of the newest and youngest girl in the group, wiping her sweaty hot head with a cold wet cloth. Twelve year-old Suli, like all

the rest of the girls that her father had taken from the Earth Kingdom, was an earthbender. He had kidnapped her during his last trip to Omashu two weeks before and for the

past week, she had been sick with a cold that was now infecting her lungs. Oksana had done everything she could with the little water she had gathered from a storm that had

happened the previous night, but she knew that Suli needed more help than she could give her and she knew her father wouldn't help her. Kesuk made it clear to all of them

that they would only been given enough food to live off of twice a week and enough water for the girls to take the herbs that surpressed their earth, fire, and, in Oksana's case,

waterbeing until one of them became pregnant. But Oksana was doing everything she could to make sure that didn't happen. Before she was locked down here herself, she

would sneak down to basement late one night and give the girls tea that contained contraception herbs. When her father realized what she was doing, he locked her down in the

basement and made sure she didn't get any water except the little she got for drinking. He thought that now that his daughter wasn't interfering with his plans, the girls would

start getting pregnant. What he didn't know was that every time he brought a girl back to the basement after he had finished with her, Oksana would immediately bend as much

semen as she could out of her. That along with the fact that all of them where in poor health due to the little food and water they were getting made getting pregnant nearly

impossible.

Oksana continued to run the wet rag over Suli's face as one of the older girls, Nakiya, walked over and knelt beside her. Her father had found the abandoned teenage girl in an

alley in the Fire Nation, exhausted, hungry, burning with fever, and no idea who she was. He brought her back to Ba Sing Se and spent several days nursing her back to health

before locking her in the basement with the other girls. By the time Oksana was locked in the basement a year later, the girl had established herself as the mother figure of the

group. She would make sure that all the girls had an equal amount of food and water, even if it meant she wouldn't get any, comforted them after Kesuk finished with them or if

they were homesick, and tucked each one of them into bed every night. Oksana also grew close with the girl that after a year, when she still couldn't remember her name,

Oksana decided to call her Nakiya, after her own mother who died when Oksana was a toddler.

"How is she?" Nakiya asked.

Oksana let out a sigh.

"I've done all I can do for her, but it's not enough. If we don't get her the help she needs soon, she'll die." She said. "I hope Uncle gets here soon."

Nakiya looked at her.

"Are you sure we can trust this Uncle person?" She said. "You haven't seen or heard from him since that night."

Oksana laid the rag on Suli's forehead and nodded.

"He promised me he would get us out of here and he's never broken a promise he's made to me." She said.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps outside the alcove a few seconds later, a familiar voice called out,

"Oksana, are you there?"

Joy filled Oksana as she jumped up and ran to the alcove, careful not to step on any of the other pallets that were littering the floor.

"Yes Uncle, I'm here!" She said.

She heard him talking to someone named Sokka, telling him to go and keep watch for her father.

"Oksana, you and the others move as far back as you can." He said.

Oksana turned to Nakiya.

"Help me everyone up and move them to the other side of the room." She said.

Nakiya nodded and together they woke up all the girls and told them to go to the other side of the room. Though tired, the girls heard the urgency in Nakiya and Oksana's voices

and did as they were told. When all the girls were moved and Suli was secure in Nakiya's arms, Oksana called out,

"Okay Uncle, we're ready."

She heard Uncle say something to someone named Toph, then to her and the other girls' amazement, the bars on the alcove were pushed aside like they were nothing, leaving

a big enough hole for her and the other girls to climb through.

"Oksana, send each girl out one at time." She heard Uncle say.

She turned to the girls.

"Everyone form a line." She said.

They did as she said and formed a line at the alcove with Nakiya and Suli at the end. One by one, she helped the girls up to the alcove, where they would grab Iroh's hands and

be pulled out. Once they were out in the alley, Suki, Toph, or Ty-Lee would quickly escort them to the teashop and sneak them through the back door. They didn't keep track of

how many girls were coming out because they didn't know how long they had until Kesuk came back and had to get the girls out as fast as they could. Finally, the only girls left

in the basement were Nakiya, Oksana, and Suli.

"Uncle, this next girl is deathly sick and unconscious. You need to reach in here as far as you can to get her." Oksana called out.

Iroh got on his stomach and pushed his arms into the alcove as far as he could. When he felt something brush against his palms, he grabbed it and pulled it up. When he had

Suli, he quickly handed her to Suki.

"Make sure Katara treats her immediately." He said.

Suki nodded and ran back to the teashop. Just seconds after she walked inside, Sokka ran around the corner.

"He's back!" He said. "Kesuk is back!"

Iroh turned back to the alcove.

"Oksana, your father has returned!" He called out.

Oksana's face paled as she turned to Nakiya.

"Come on, let's get you out of here." He said.

She moved to help Nakiya out, but she stopped her.

"Not without you." She said.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." She said.

Nakiya shook her head.

"We both know what he's going to do when he finds out that all the girls are gone." She said. "I'm not going to let you die."

Oksana let out a sigh, knowing that nothing she could say that could change her friend's mind, and turned to the alcove.

"Uncle, you and the others get out of here." She said.

"What?! No! I'm not leaving you again!" He said.

Just then, she heard the locks to the door being undone.

"Go! Leave now!" She cried.

Iroh got up and as he, Sokka, Toph, and Ty-Lee ran back to the teashop, his heart began to ache know that for the first time since they had meet, he had broken a promise he

made to Oksana.

Nakiya and Oksana listened as the last locks on the door were unlocked and it opened to reveal Kesuk dressed in his very best and with a smug look on his face. However, the

smug look vanished when he saw the empty room and the bars that once covered the alcove. He walked up to his daughter, grabbed her by the front of her tattered, worn dress

and pulled her up so that her feet no longer touch the floor.

"What did you do?!" He said in a deathly tone. "Where are they?!"

Oksasa calmly said,

"Somewhere you'll never find them."

**Endnote: So what did you think? Review and let me know.**

**This was suppose to be put a couple weeks ago, but then my brother borrowed the USB stick that this chapter was on and accidently deleted the original**

**chapter (needless to say, he's never borrowing any of my things again), so I had to retype this chapter from memory (which is why it's sorta crummy). On**

**top of all of this, I had a huge project going on at work that took up most of my time. I'm going to try to update every weekend, but the project at work is still**

**going on, so I can't make any promises yet.**

**Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!**

**Bye!**

**Ruby Sapphire Rose**


	2. A Face From The Past

Aang watched as King Kuei lowered his head into his hands, not wanting to believe what the Avatar had just told him. After a few moments, he looked back up.

"Are you telling me that the man I held a banquet for, the man I gave an award to for his contributions to Ba Sing Se, is kidnapping young girls and keeping them in his basement?" He said.

Aang nodded sadly.

"And doing everything he can to get them pregnant with babies that are of Water Tribe descent." He said, not wanting to think of what exactly those methods were.

"And do you have proof do you have of this?" Kuei asked.

"After we got Iroh's letter, we went around the Earth Kingdom to see if the claims were true and found the parents of fourteen girls who suddenly went missing over the last three years, the most recent happening two weeks ago when a twelve year-old girl went to the market for her mother and never came back. Iroh also wrote to Fire Lord Zuko, who ordered an investigation of his own and found that nineteen girls went missing from the Fire Nation the exact same way." He said. "Look, I'm sorry you weren't told sooner, but this was the only way we could get the girls out of the house safely."

Kuei looked at him.

"So all the girls are safe?" He asked.

Aang was about to answer him when the door to the throne room opened and a guard walked inside with a hawk on his arm. Aang recognized the guard as the one he asked to

keep an eye out for Hawky.

"I apologize for the interruption, your highness." He said. "But this messenger hawk just arrived for the Avatar."

Aang nodded and Hawky immediately flew to him, landed on his shoulder, and leaned forward so that Aang could take the message from the tube-shaped container on it's back.

Aang unrolled the message and quickly read it before turning back to Kuei.

"They got thirty-three girls out of the basement before Kesuk got back." He said.

Kuei quickly did the math in his head.

"That's good though." He said. "You said that all together, thirty-three girls were taken from the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation."

Aang shook his head.

"There was one more girl, Kesuk's daughter Oksana. They heard her talking to someone else just before they ran back to teashop, so there are still two girls left." He said. "Sokka, Suki, and Ty Lee are keeping watch over the clinic to make sure that Kesuk doesn't try to make a run for it, but he defiantly knows he's been caught."

Kuei nodded and turned to the guard who had come into the room.

"Go and tell General How about the situation and tell him to take a group of soldiers to Kesuk's clinic and arrest him for kidnapping." He said.

The guard bowed and left the room. Kuei turned to Aang.

"I have been to Iroh's tea shop and I know that it is too small to keep all those girls there." He said. "Can your bison get all of them here?"

Aang nodded.

"Yes, but he's going to have to make two trips to do it. Appa can't take that many people at once." He said. "And remember, they probably aren't going to be in the best of shape and won't be able to talk about what they've been through."

Kuei nodded.

"I'll arrange for them to be taken care of here and there is plenty of time for them to talk later." He said. "Let just focus on getting them here and contacting their families."

Aang nodded and left to get Appa ready for the trip.

As Aang, General How, and the soldiers made their way to Iroh's teashop and Kesuk's clinic, Sokka, Suki, and Ty Lee had Kesuk's clinic surrounded. They didn't want to risk

barging in and Kesuk hurting or even killing the girls, so they stood guard outside while Toph used her seismic sense to keep track of Kesuk and the girls' heartbeats to make

sure they were still in the house. Suddenly they felt a rush of wind and looked up to see Appa coming in for landing in front of the teashop. Aang jumped off the bison and turned

to him.

"Stay here, Buddy, I'll be back soon." He said.

Appa groaned in response and ran into the alley that Sokka was guarding.

"Aang, you're back!" He whispered. "Did you tell the king?"

Aang nodded.

"He's sending a group of soldiers here to arrest Kesuk." He whispered back. "Is he still in there?"

Sokka nodded.

"Along with the two girls we weren't able to get out." He whispered. "Toph can still sense all of their heartbeats, but the second she feels less than three, we're going in, whether the soldiers are here or not."

Just then, they heard what sounded like a stampede running towards them. Aang ran out of the alley and saw a stampede of ostrich horses running toward him with General

How and the soldiers on their backs. They stopped when they reached the front of the clinic.

"Is he still inside?" General How asked Aang.

Aang nodded.

"Yes, but there are still two girls in there." He said.

General How nodded and turned to his group. He gave them a few hand signals before the soldiers dismounted and surrounded the left and right sides of the clinic. The general

walked up to the door and pounded on it three times.

"Kesuk, this is General How of Earth Kingdom army! We have a warrant for your arrest and have the building surrounded, come out peacefully or we will take you by force!" He shouted.

A few minutes went by, and nothing happened. General How pounded on the door again.

"Kesuk, this is your final warning! Come out now or we're coming in!" He shouted.

Another minute passed with nothing happening. Suddenly, Ty Lee, who was guarding the back of the building, shouted,

"FIRE!"

Aang, Sokka, and Suki ran to the back of the clinic as it's front door opened and Kesuk appeared. General How moved to place a pair of handcuffs on him when he was suddenly

couldn't move. The next thing he knew, he was being forced to his knees and his arms were being contorted to the point where he dropped the handcuffs. He looked at Kesuk,

who had a smirk on his face.

"What is this?!" He said. "What are you doing?!"

"The one form of bending that nobody can beat." Kesuk said. "Bloodbending."

He moved his hands again and General How let out a cry of pain before collapsing in a dead faint. Just then, hearing their leader's cry of pain, the soldiers ran to the front of the

building and found Kesuk handcuffing an unconscious General How. They charged at him, only to freeze and had their limbs contorted like General How's had. A few moments

later, they all passed out and Kesuk took off.

When Aang, Sokka, and Suki got to the back of the clinic, they found flames shooting out the hole that Toph had made.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US, PLEASE!" They heard coming from the basement, followed by a crash, a scream, and somebody screaming,

"NAKIYA!".

Aang turned to the earthbender.

"Go get Katara and tell her to bring me some water." He told her.

Toph nodded and ran back to the teashop. A few moments later, she returned with Katara and a bucket of water. Katara quickly uncorked her water skin and bent the water out

of it while Aang bent the water out of the bucket. They sent the water through the hole and a few moments later, the fire was put out and steam came through the hole.

"Let's go Sokka." Aang said as he got on his hands and knees and crawled through the hole with Sokka right behind him.

When they reach the floor of the basement, Aang formed a flame in the palm of his hand and gave the pitch-dark basement enough light to make out two girls sitting in the

floor, bound together by a chain. They ran over to them and knelt beside them.

"Aang, burn one of the links of the chain." He said.

Aang lifted a part of the chain, and used the flame in his palm to burn one of the links. As he was doing this, Sokka touched the shoulders of one of the girls, who immediately g

asped and tried to shield away from him as much as she could.

"Hey hey Oksana, it's okay, we're here to help, Iroh sent us." He said.

She looked up at him.

"Uncle sent you?" She said.

Sokka nodded. The girl looked over her shoulder at the girl behind her.

"Please, you've got to help her." She said. "Part of the floor above us fell on top of her."

Sokka looked at the other girl, who was blacked out from the pain of being burned. He couldn't see her face, but he could see the several smoldering pieces of wood that covered

her legs. At that moment, Aang's flame broke the link, causing the chain to loosen and he and Sokka pulled the chain over the girls' head.

"Take her back up while I pull this one out of from under the boards." He said.

Aang nodded, helped Oksana up, and help her over to the hole, where he gave her a boost up and Oksana used the last of her strength to pull herself into the alley before being

joined by Aang. As they were doing this, Sokka took the other girl by the arms and pulled her out from under the boards. When he saw the condition of her legs, Sokka had to

fight the urge to throw-up. Not only were her legs horribly burnt, but they were also bent at unnatural angles.

"Sokka, what's taking so long?" Aang asked. "Bring her up."

Snapping out of his gaze, Sokka leaded down and took the girl into his arms. She whimpered in her sleep as he hooked an arm under her legs.

"Shh, it's okay." He said. "You're going to be okay."

He lifted up toward the hole, carefully not to do anymore damage to her legs, and watched as Aang put his arms under her shoulders and pulled her through. A couple minutes

later, he appeared again and held a hand out to Sokka, who grabbed it and let Aang pulled him back out into the alley. When he reached the alley, Sokka stood up, dusted himself

off, and turned to pick the girl back up to take her to the teashop when he froze. The girls were laying side by side, passed out from exhaustion, hunger, and, in Nakiya's case,

pain. He turned to Aang, who was also looking at the girl laying next to Oksana, too shocked to say anything.

"Aang, it's..." He began.

"I know." Aang said.

Not only had they just saved the daughter of probably the most wanted man in Ba Sing Se from being burned alive, but they had also saved the former princess of the Fire

Nation.


End file.
